ELIOT, Maine — One of the most significant of 39 warrant articles was rejected by town voters Saturday night, leaving residents in a situation where they may now may have to organize a special meeting to discuss all of the articles again.

The most contentious article of the night, Article 51, failed. Article 51 would have allowed the town to “exceed the property tax levy limit estimated at $2,772,664,” according to the town meeting warrant.

Before the article was denied, one Eliot resident pleaded to the other residents to support it, “We will just have to come back here and redo everything we just spent the last five hours doing. We might as well have been playing golf for the last five hours.”

Other residents explained they would support a special meeting. “I don’t agree that it’s a total waste of time,” said one resident. “I’ll come back,” said another. “My time is not worth $420,000.”

Town Clerk Wendy Rawski said that she expects to be having meetings with the Board of Selectmen to start the process of scheduling a special town meeting. “The last article of the night failed so it looks like we may be having to regroup and come back to a special town meeting,” said Rawski.

Other articles discussed and approved late Saturday night included articles 44-50.

Article 45, which would “authorize the Selectmen to appropriate from Unreserved Fund Balance, as they deem advisable to meet unappropriated emergency expenses that occur during Fiscal Year 2013-2014”, inspired much debate.

After the article was moved by Eliot Administrative Assistant Daniel Blanchette at the tune of $50,000, Eliot Budget Committee Member John Reed moved to amend the amount to $1,000.

“The funds in this account are originally designed to be used for emergencies only,” said Reed, “Over the past couple years they have been used to fund health insurance, $26,000, and excess overtime for the Police Department, $20,000.”

Vice Chairman of the Eliot Board of Selectman Stephen Beckert disagreed with Reed. “Some of Mr. Reed’s explanations were, in my opinion, way off base as far as things being ignored,” said Beckert.

Reed then asked Blanchette for a ballpark figure of how much money would be needed in the fund, Blanchette said $25,000 to $30,000.

After the article had been debated for about five minutes, Eliot Budget Committee Member William T. Jacques chimed in, “When I was a kid I was given an allowance and my father said to me, ‘That’s it,’ you spend it, it’s gone.”

After a vote, Reed’s amendment to change the amount to $1,000 passed. However right after passing, Reed moved to amend the total again to $30,000. “My guess is that for some reason they’re between a rock and a hard place,” said Reed.

The new amendment passed and article 45 passed to the tune of $30,000.

Article 50, which set the amount of funds to be used for employee’s fringe benefits, was also hotly debated. Blanchette moved to pass the article for $762,810. Reed then immediately moved to amend the total to $734,918.

The debate that followed Reed’s amendment centered mostly on the complexities of employee benefits, including health care. “If you can figure out the Affordable Care Act, let me know,” Blanchette said at one point.